Can a legendary food critic expose the dark reality of mass-produced industrial cuisine?
In short: In the 1976 French comedy The Wing or the Thigh, a renowned restaurant critic battles a ruthless industrialist who turns quality dining into synthetic, mass-produced sludge. Featuring Louis de Funès in his triumphant return to cinema, the film serves as a satirical, high-stakes look at the battle for culinary integrity.
Directed by Claude Zidi, The Wing or the Thigh (L'aile ou la cuisse) stars Louis de Funès as Charles Duchemin, the editor of a prestigious restaurant guide. Duchemin, famous for his elaborate disguises, faces a crisis when Jacques Tricatel, an industrial food mogul, begins acquiring quality restaurants to serve his own synthetic products. The film is widely considered a direct satire of the real-world Michelin Guide and the rise of industrial food promoter Jacques Borel in 1970s France.
The narrative follows Duchemin’s attempt to train his son, Gérard, to take over the family business. However, Gérard secretly prefers life as a circus clown. Their paths collide when they uncover that Tricatel’s factory manufactures food from artificial ingredients like rubber and petroleum. The tension peaks during a televised confrontation where the Duchemins expose Tricatel’s practices, including his secret orders to have them eliminated, using evidence gathered from his own production facility.
The film was a massive success, selling 5,841,956 tickets in France and ranking as the country's top-performing domestic film at the 1976 box office. It holds particular historical significance as the first project Louis de Funès completed following his 1974 double heart attack, which had previously forced him to withdraw from a planned production titled Le Crocodile. Beyond its commercial triumph, the movie earned a Goldene Leinwand award in Germany in 1978 and remains a staple of French television.
Ultimately, the film functions as a clash between tradition and industrialization. While the comedy relies on slapstick and disguise, its core message reflects a genuine anxiety regarding the loss of artisanal standards in the face of corporate efficiency. By the final scene, the absurdity of the factory-made world is underscored when Duchemin discovers a lost watch inside a dish served at an inaugural dinner for the Académie Française.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: The Wing or the Thigh
- Also: Wikidata — The Wing or the Thigh · CC0
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